How it goes
by russiasnow11
Summary: What happens after the movie ends. P/H
1. Chapter 1

Perry's had a lot of life experiences-many more than his erstwhile assistant, he's sure, but it doesn't change how the guy can emote. He only watches his performances in secret, under the guise of being 'out', working.

And yet, after everything he's done, been through, seen, he couldn't help but feel life after Harry was a shock. He was an idiot, sure, but everything else seemed to change, all at once.

Perry got a flood of new clients after Harry slowly but surely charmed the wealthy socialites who wanted their husbands caught on camera with the maid. [Or pool boy, in one case]. He had a way of getting along with people, making him an incredible secretary. An asset.

Perry's been told he's a little abrasive sometimes. He can't help it.

Neither of them discuss the amount of business Harry's able to pull in, the way he gets Perry twice as much work as he's ever had. He doesn't lord it over him; really he seems uncomfortable with any mention of competence on his part at all. It's like he prefers everyone think he's nice but stupid.

It's his knee jerk reaction, and Perry will have his own reaction if he ever finds out who taught him to feel that way.

Of course, to balance Harry's positives out, he still does things like accidentally put a camera in the fridge once and fall asleep on the couch, head resting on Perry's rolled up old sweater.

It makes him feel things, seeing him look so young in his sleep, face pillowed on Perry's clothes.

It was strange, feeling something real for someone. In his town, things like that rarely happened. Harry seemed to be impervious to the corruption and cruelty of L.A.. He had even started acting in recurring television roles.

[Perry had obviously forced him to use a fake name that he most emphatically did not let him choose.]

And it wasn't just Perry who felt oddly sincere about his little friend. It was Harry, too. He could tell, even if only from the way he would sit beside him on the couch. Harry was soft, in every way-he seemed to melt into his side, next to him; the way he talks and talks, but clams up if another man tries to engage with him too friendly-ish. Perry kind of likes being the one guy in Harry's life, or person in his life. It's not like he's got any women.

The reality is, Harry starts making more money with constant roles than the actual P.I. office does. [It's an unspoken reality.] He still comes with him sometimes, and does all the paperwork and phone calls, but mostly he's just out acting, on set.

At home, Perry gave him his own room, but it still looks terrible. It has barely anything of Harry's.

He just didn't have much. It upsets Perry somehow, but he can just manage to restrain himself from asking where his stuff is. Where did it go? Everyone has random stuff, pointless things. Childhood mementos, clutter. But Harry has almost nothing.

His room stands empty for days and days; it doesn't seem to bother Harry, but then, not much does. Sure he whines a little, and rambles a lot, but he doesn't really talk about his thoughts. His opinions.

[Like why is he living with Perry? They never talk about it. Harry never really mentions his orientation, and when rude little bastards call him his bitch, he just laughs. He technically pays Harry, but he had to set his bank account up himself-and Perry knows he doesn't use the money. He only uses his acting cash, and is apparently paid half in it as well. The other half goes into the bank.

He checks his accounts just to protect him, god knows the producers could screw him or something. Somebody's got to look out for him. And he gets job after job, until he really has enough to go live on his own quite comfortably. Not that Perry informs him of it.

He can see the signs of change in himself-the attachment, the comfort. And it's there vice versa: Harry looks to him for safety, and for approval.

Perry's just worried that he's alone in looking to his little friend for love, too. He's already got the other two. Harry always speaks of him like he's some heroic character-yes, Perry listens in on a lot of his conversations. Harry's got a loud voice, okay? It's not like it's intentional. And while he might not be able to fight his way out of a cardboard box, Perry does feel safe with him.

Safe, as in he'd never hurt him, he cares about him. If he hears Perry having a nightmare, he's come in before, and sat on the bed next to him, and talked and put an arm around him. He never mentions it the next day, or ever, really. All without any uncomfortable talk.]

Sometimes, Harry's the best.

So Perry ends up realizing he's unconsciously kept buying him things just to fill up that discomfiting empty space. It's a troubling thought. He's tried to keep from thinking about how attached he is to Harry, how much he enjoys having someone around. Harry is such a sweet, funny person by nature-Perry thought people like him didn't exist. But Harry is real, going over his lines in his room, endlessly walking back and forth, talking to himself. And he has this type of innocence, this weird sincerity, that draws him in. He wants to have him, and protect him from the world, all at once.

You can't really hear to much out in the hall, but Perry has listened to him go over his lines. It's mostly disjointed words. He'd expected Harry to brag about his paychecks from set, but instead he never mentions them at all. They just keep getting direct deposited to Perry's account. [He set him up as a subsidiary family member, so it's technically his account as well. Of course, he never seems to think things like dates or times are important, so it's lucky he's got Perry.]

The whole thing means Harry found his checkbook, made a void check and gave it to the accounting people. He'd kind of just assumed that he'd take all the money in cash, but no. He's very off the grid, cash only, random disposable cell phone-very ready to be a flew the coop story. Harry never mentions money either, despite being his dependent [and putting it in that joint account]. To be fair, Perry doesn't talk either.

It's too creepy, to mention he's almost had him move in as a type of boyfriend. Perry cooks them breakfast, they constantly hang out together-it's like nobody's naming what's obvious. He's worried that Harry won't react well to being the focus of positive emotion, he just eschews it.

Even with that Harmony woman, it was all 'no, no, you're right', and 'I wish I could have someone like you someday'. Like he couldn't imagine someone loving him.

Perry's got news for him, but he's just too avoidant. Harry might talk a lot, but he also skates by anything emotional, meaningful or serious. And he can't approach the subject at all. It's too serious, too real. It's so much easier to keep things as the status quo day after day.


	2. Chapter 2

Harry had always lived his life light. From his home as a kid, to attending college classes on the cheap [if you sit in the back no one notices], to going from one form of thievery to another, he was always moving. Always free.

Before meeting Perry, his current forays into quote 'work' were lowbrow. It followed a period where had worked with someone way too into jewels. She had been a real professional, and so had he. But she had hesitated before helping him out of a momentary snag, wanting to get the jewels instead of saving him.

It had made him sad, somehow. Even though she hadn't left him for dead, she'd paused. Thought about it. Leaving him had been her instinct. It was knowledge he hadn't wanted to have. He had deliberately chosen only lowbrow partners after that, little crimes that didn't matter.

He was tired of the big game, of big stakes. He'd studied with a lock breaker, a charmer, a pickpocket, a safecracker and of course, the jewel thief. All of them had been unique, interesting. They'd taught him irreplaceable skills, and how to work with others. It was a hard thing to do, after always being alone and relying only on yourself.

He'd had a little hope that Harmony might work out, but unsurprisingly, she'd wanted better. Especially since he never told anyone what he was really worth. The real professionals never seemed to come off as wealthy. It was bad form to wear or drive anything expensive.

People barely liked him as it was, if they'd known what his Cayman Island bank account said they'd just lie and pretend to value him. Most thieves only dated within their own specialization, but Harry preferred to move on and within different types of work. Anyway, he was basically with Perry already, right?

While his real life of being a thief was usually fine, his 'normal', mundane life was the problem.

He just couldn't manage it, the bills and mail, the endless normal things you had to keep up on. You had to buy groceries and pay an electric bill. Get gas, do the laundry. It was too much, and too complicated, with all its little details. He'd had mighty little experience with domestic, normal life and didn't it seem like it was too late to learn now?

He'd just gone through life latching onto one expert thief after another, and stayed with them as an apprentice of sorts. They'd had maids to handle the house, and assistants to handle the everyday stuff. As a result, Harry had just recently realized he was not prepared for regular anything. Meeting Perry had only emphasized that.

And yet... Perry made him kinda want to stay playacting this normal life. Having a 'straight' job as an actor. Coming home to one place at night for a reason. For a loved one. Perry was so stable, so rooted down in his big house with all its stuff. How do you even manage to get all that stuff?

Harry felt sure that Perry was a low level hoarder. Probably because of how bad his father had been, he mused. He kind of always felt sorry for Perry, in some vague, general way, because he seemed so sad inside, so stoic but lonely. He tried to cheer him up a little, but Perry was impervious to being cheery. Harry had always thought the only goal of life was to enjoy yourself and be [a little] good, but Perry seemed to think work was all there was.

His only fun purchases seemed to be ice cream, weird fancy kinds Harry had never bothered trying before. He'd always just had chocotacos or cornettos. Perry seemed to take everything seriously, even meals. Instead of just eating cheerios and then going out to get burritos, he actually made food by hand. In a kitchen.

Harry would sometimes sit and watch him, almost interested in how it all worked. He'd never tried to cook himself, and couldn't remember his parents ever doing it either.

Perry is different. He eats imported Icelandic yogurt. [It tastes pretty plain to Harry]. He has classical music on in the house sometimes, and pours them out wine when they have dinner. All of it kind of shocks Harry-he didn't know this was what normal people life was like-but he doesn't say anything. Besides, Perry likes to teach him things, he will talk endlessly about what Harry's supposed to taste in a particular red.

Harry dutifully doesn't tell him he doesn't really like wine very much. It must be a gay thing. There's a lot he doesn't know about being gay, but since Perry is the only guy he's ever liked, he figures it's just an aberration in his own self. Perry basically acts like they're together, and Harry has decided he's fine with that. Eventually they'll do all the bedroom stuff, whatever that actually would be in real life, but he's sure Perry will know how to handle him. He already does, anyway.

Harry spends most of time doing acting jobs, which are pretty boring, except for the acting part. That's okay. It's fun to pretend to be someone else. And you get paid for it! It's amazing.

Perry doesn't seem to have a high opinion of tv or movies, he doesn't really mention it. He keeps Harry doing his secretary stuff. It's kind of nice to live with someone. He's always lived with other people, but it was professional, for work. They were studying blueprints and techniques constantly. You didn't get weekends off, you didn't hang out very much. Everyone was obsessed with the score.

Even though they were all so rich, that's all they cared about. After the first few jewelry heists, and exploring what people actually keep in their safes [very weird stuff sometimes!], it got a little old hat. Jewelry's just stones in the end, no matter how much it's worth.

It's much more invigorating to have someone to talk to, to have a friend. Harry's had acquaintances, mentors, apprentices himself, co-workers, assistants and associates. Never friends.

It feels nice to talk to someone because he wants to, without a goal. Perry's really very nice. He doesn't like to be called on it, but he is a little over-invested in Harry. He always wants to know if whoever he's talking to is trustworthy; if someone calls he wants to know if they treated him right. Sometimes Harmony calls while drunk and definitely does not treat him right. Perry always gets furious with her and makes her apologize - after taking the phone away from him.

Harry can't bring himself to tell him it's okay. It's happened a lot over the years. And he himself calls her too. He doesn't even need to be drunk to be embarrassing. He can cry about his parents just fine while sober.

Being with Perry is the best thing in his life. He's so strong, in the emotional sense, like stability-and also strong for real. He's always worried about him, protective, he chides him to go to the doctor [his private one] because his health is important, he wants to hang out with him every day. When Harry comes home from an acting gig, he looks up as he comes in like he's pleased. Like he wants to talk to him, missed him.

Nobody's ever missed him before. It's a good feeling, Harry thinks.

Perry even buys him things. Half the stuff seems to be some gay thing Harry doesn't understand, if he's honest. I mean, what's the purpose of a chair with a weird name? Perry lectures him about Eames furniture, Diptique candles, cologne, clothes. He buys him clothes and stuff from places Harry's never heard of but mentally refers to as 'alphabet soup': APC, Clive no. 1, Thom Browne, YSL, Buly.

He always seems anxious that Harry like it. And he does, because it's nice of him. It's sweet, if ultimately misguided. Harry doesn't care about stuff. He had a lot of stuff, it didn't mean anything. Only people matter.


	3. Chapter 3

The story continues here: /works/6732886/


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